This invention relates to skate-boots, and to an adapter whereby the same skate-boots may be utilised interchangeably as both ice skates and in-line roller skates.
In-line roller skating has recently become very popular; ice-skating, of course, has been popular for many years. The invention lies in an adapter for converting in-line roller skates for ice-skating.
In comparing the different needs of the two different types of skating, it is recognised that the requirements of the skate-boot are more or less the same for both types. Traditionally, upon purchasing both roller skates and ice-skates, the skater now has two pairs of skate-boots. The pairs are more or less the same, except for the structures underneath the boot.
The boot itself is a large part of the cost. As a result, often, a skater who wishes to enjoy both types of skating has to make do, for economic reasons, with equipment of less quality, simply because of the duplication of the expensive boots. The adapter of the invention is aimed at making possible the economies that result from being able to take the rollers off the roller-skate boot, and to attach an ice-skate unit to the boot, in their place.
A good deal of research and development has gone into the design of the boots intended specifically for in-line roller skatesxe2x80x94perhaps even more than into the boots designed specifically for ice-skates. Many dual-mode skaters wish they could purchase a pair of ice-skate boots that have the quality and performance of their roller-skate boots. The adapter of the invention is aimed at making it possible for the high-performance boot structure often found in in-line roller-skates to be available for use with ice-skates.
Of course, it would be a simple matter to devise an ice-skate adapter system, if the adapter could be custom-fitted to every brand and size of in-line roller skate. It has been recognised, in one aspect of the invention, that custom-fitting is not necessary, and it has been recognised that a single design of adapter is all that is needed to enable the conversion of almost any brand or size of in-line roller skate into a robust, high-performance, ice-skate.
Although the design of the adapter lends itself to standardisation, if desired non-standard versions may be tailored specifically to a particular brand-style and size of skate.
Often, people like to enjoy ice-skating in winter and in-line roller skating in summer. It is an aim of the invention to provide an adapter that has no loose parts to be lost over a period of a few months. Also, it is an aim to provide an adapter, in which the task of changing from in-line roller-skate to ice-skate, and back again, can be accomplished quickly and easily, and in a manner that is commensurate with the routine maintenance tasks skaters normally have to carry out, and in which, even after the changeover between the rollers and the ice-blade has been made many times, the routine act of making the changeover leaves both modes of the skate tight and secure, and safe.
It is recognised, in the invention, that virtually all in-line roller skates use rollers that have substantially the same dimensions. In particular, even when the rollers differ as to quality of materials, or even differ slightly as to overall diameter, still the rollers all have the same overall thickness or width W at the axle. In nearly all of the rollers currently in use, this width W is 0.9 inches. It is also recognised that the diameter D of the spindle upon which the rollers are mounted is also standardisedxe2x80x94to xc2xc inch diameter. Other standard sizes are sometimes encountered; for example, some brands of youth skate have a width of 0.75 inches, although the spindle remains the same, at xc2xc inch.
The standardisation of rollers also means that certain aspects of the boots, in turn, have been correspondingly standardised, at least as regards the dimensions of the mountings for the rollers. (Such aspects of boot performance as lateral support, ankle-hinges, manner of tightening the boot to the foot, etc, however, are within the domain of each manufacturer, and have not been standardised.) The invention is aimed at taking advantage of this standardisation of some of the boot dimensions.
The invention provides a blade-chassis that has the same width as the width W of the standard rollers. That is to say, the blade-chassis is 0.9 inches wide. If some other standard width W came to be adopted for rollers, presumably that same width could be adopted also for the blade-chassis, if it was close to 0.9 inches. However, it is recognised, in the invention, that a width of 0.9 inches is highly suitable for the blade-chassis of an ice-skate, as will be described.
The metal ice-blade is fixed into the blade-chassis, which can be a plastic moulding, and the forces arising from the ice-blade are fed into the boot, through the blade-chassis. It is recognised that, following the standard 0.9 inches dimension, the space envelope available for the chassis is such that the chassis can be highly rigid, and very easily able to support the sometimes heavily abusive forces that can arise between the blade and the boot, which can arise especially when the skater is playing hockey.
For the adapter to find favour, the task of changing the skates from in-line rollers to ice-skates should be undemanding as to skill and attention on the part of the skater. No delicate adjustments should be called for. No special tools should be needed. The task of taking rollers out of the skate-boot is a routine and regular maintenance procedure that can be handled by any roller-skate enthusiast, and, as will become clear, the task of inserting the blade-chassis and the ice-skate blade, together, as a unit, is even simpler.
When the rollers are not in use, they may be kept, e.g in the box with the other spare rollers that most enthusiasts have on hand. The design of the rollers is such that, when the rollers are taken out of the skate, there are no loose pieces that fall off. The rollers have bearings, but these are pressed in, and the bearings generally do not fall out of the rollers. Similarly, when the ice-skate adapter unit is not in use, it is a one-piece unit, with no loose components to fall off. A pair of the ice-skate adapter units can easily be stored, and be instantly made ready for re-use.
The ice-skate adapter unit is held in place with the same spindle rods that are used to hold the rollers in place, so no loose components of the spindle rods arise, in either mode of skating. It may be noted that if the spindle rods were set aside, as the rollers are set aside, during the ice-skating mode, it would be all to easy for the spindle-rods to become lost. The spindle-rods are not subjected to any more stressful treatment in the ice skates than they are subjected to in the rollers mode, for which they were designed.